On-line Writing Community

            As I wrote previously, I have been involved with NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) before. However, people still like writing even when it’s not November, the month wherein this event takes place, so they have two camp NaNoWriMo’s in April and July. It’s April so that means that the first camp of the year has started! During the camps, and during regular NaNoWriMo, the NaNoWriMo team has virtual write-ins. They live stream writing on youtube and people can watch and write along with the prompts they give, or just work on their own projects where they are at. Before I hadn’t known the virtual write-ins existed and then I couldn’t make the ones during the month of November. However, I recently got the change to attend my first virtual write in. So if you want to know how that works and whether I found it helpful read on below!

The Start

            First I should say, the NaNoWriMo team announces these write ins both on their website and on their twitter page. I follow their twitter page (you can follow me too @JuliaWillWrite) @NaNoWriMo and so that’s how I learned of this past virtual write in on April 4^th. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to have any grading to do from my long-term substitute position but I decided to at least try to make it. I got home from my long-term sub position ate some food and unpacked from the day before I sat down at my computer. I had to be somewhere at 7 so I wanted to make sure I had at least eaten before I joined the write-in as I wasn’t sure how long these typically lasted. I missed about the first 10-15 minutes of it, where the two hosts, Katherine, the communications manager, and Nina, the editorial intern for the spring, introduced themselves and gave everyone the first prompt. But I was able to catch up really fast on what was going on.

My Camp NaNoWriMo Project 

I’m currently continuing my project from November, since I didn’t get that far with it last time. It’s a non-fiction exploration into the question “What is a Woman?” where I grapple with what that word means to me personally as I’ve found it to be quite confusing. I don’t know if it will ever be published as I typically prefer writing fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, but it is my selected project for this camp. Therefore, it didn’t really bother me that I missed the first prompt about setting where they asked if you could give some details about where your story is taking place and what it looks like. They only spent 5 minutes writing on this prompt before they came back and talked about what they had written. I came in about midway through the first prompt and just started writing.

Live Stream Basics

            If you’ve never watched a youtube live stream, basically the people on screen are live, it’s happening in real time, and to the right of the screen is a chat box where you can make comments and the rest of the people watching as well as those actually on the screen can see your comments. The comments section of a youtube live stream is typically filled with a lot of people and therefore it can be next to impossible to keep up with all of the comments. Generally you just start look at the comments when they are live and then take if a couple and ignore the newest ones until you’ve actually taken the time to read some. So the comments the presenters read aren’t guaranteed to be the most recent, as it’s impossible to keep up, but you can and Katherine and Nina did read some comments of what people wrote and what they are working on during the breaks in between prompts.

Sprints

            One of the most intimidating things about NaNoWriMo to me is the height of the word count. It can be so easy to fall behind. But the idea isn’t that those thousands of words you write are perfect words. Instead you are just trying to get down as many words as possible whether they are good or bad is irrelevant. You need to silence your inner critic and just get writing. The virtual write ins keep up with that theme. This particular write in involved 3 sprints wherein you just try and get down as many words as possible. Of course if your goal for this camp is to edit your novel, then you have a different goal and that is fine, but while I didn’t follow the prompt Katherine and Nina gave I did follow the format of the script, since I am still in the writing phase for this particular project.

Writing Together

            After the first 5 minute spring, Katherine and Nina paused and asked what everyone had been working on, what they wrote, how much they wrote, and then they read a couple of comments and shared what they wrote in that time period. They are working on their own projects with the viewers of the write in so it really makes you feel connected to a community of writers. In college, I would sometimes like to go to places on campus and study where I knew other people would be studying, particularly during finals week. This way there was a bit of social pressure to tell my brain, “ok all of these people are working so I should be working to”. Studying, or in the case of NaNoWriMo writing, is so often a solitary task that doing it with other people can be helpful. You don’t feel as isolated.

Potential Pitfalls

Of course the trick is you actually want to get work done. I’m sure everyone has had one of those times where you said you were going to meet up with a friend or potential dating partner to “work on stuff together” and it ended up just being a time to socialize or an excuse to hang out. This can easily happen with the virtual write in if you aren’t careful. Naturally if you go to the write in with the intention of talking with other writers in the chat box, then that’s fine. But if you want to get some writing done in addition with connecting with other writers, then I would suggest closing the chat box during the sprints and only looking at it once the presenters’ timer has gone off.

How did it go?

Between the 3 sprints, one 5-minute sprint, one 10-minute sprint, and a 15-minute sprint, I wrote 813 words. That’s substantial writing progress and it didn’t feel super strenuous as it was broken up. I don’t think those words were the most polished words I’ve ever written, but they were words. Also this is the first time I felt like I was part of a writing community. That being said I didn’t make any life long friends from this, but I don’t think that is the point. When you join Camp NaNoWriMo you can opt in to being placed in a virtual “cabin” with other writers or make your own. I chose to be placed with random people and I’m feeling like there’s an opportunity to make some more meaningful one-on-one connections with the people in my cabin.

Community

However, the virtual write in was the first time I felt like I was a part of a larger writing community. It’s like it was the church of writing. We could come together and grow as writers in a community with shared goals and values. In this analogy the cabin would then be the small group or bible study of writing, where you are able to go deeper and forge those more personal connections. I’ve heard people say that they feel more connected on line than they do off line. Personally, I’ve struggled making connections in either, but with the virtual write in I at least felt a slight connection to a broader global community of writers. I look forward to the next write in on Thursday April 11^th !

What About You?

Have you ever attended a virtual write in? If so how did it go? Have you ever felt like you were part of an online community, of writers or otherwise? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you in the past? Let me know in the comments!

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Image Credit: "Study Group" by Tbuckley89